Another Chargers free fall?

Keenan Allen is unable to reach this pass at the end of the 4th quarter as David Amerson defends. Chargers would have to settle for a fieldgoal to tie the game, then went on to lose in overtime 30-24.
— Sean M. Haffey

Keenan Allen is unable to reach this pass at the end of the 4th quarter as David Amerson defends. Chargers would have to settle for a fieldgoal to tie the game, then went on to lose in overtime 30-24.
— Sean M. Haffey

Whoever says the middle class is shrinking isn’t talking about the NFL. The most Scandinavian of sports leagues is doing it again. The League's safety net is supporting fully half of the AFC Conference. And there's not a winning record among the top eight teams vying for the final playoff spot.

The Chargers, tied for last in their division, somehow are only a game behind the conference's co-leaders for the final wild card.

Think where they'd be if they tackled as contenders should. Or scored touchdowns.

Or rushed the passer.

The Chargers do have a franchise quarterback, which makes them more interesting than most of the other nominal contenders.

Or does it just make them more maddening?

Get a franchise passer to the playoffs, and you just don't know what could happen. There's just enough truth to the hype, to draw you into the NFL's fantasy world. You'll end up with heartburn--usually.

Perhaps you pay attention to the Chargers for reasons other than the Super Bowl dream, an there as well, the Chargers are exceptional in their mediocrity.

In what colorful, memorable way can victory elude them this time? What bizarre, especially deflating defeat will send them into a spiral that's ultimately dooms them this year?

It's verging on a trend, you know.

This season's spectacularly maddening moment is already the stuff of legend, not even three weeks later.

The Chargers were in Maryland, freshened by a bye and coming off consecutive victories, and Rivers had them 20 inches away from a decisive touchdown and a 5-3 record.

Twenty inches.

That’s so small, it fits in the overhead bin.

Twenty inches? One of D.J. Fluker’s feet is two inches longer.

Surfboards are wider than 20 inches.

When the Chargers went 0-for-3 from inside Washington's 1, Dan Fouts sounded like someone had yanked a tuft from his beard, but, really, it was more of the same.

As the Chargers have put down roots in the NFL’s vast middle class in recent years – 9-7, 8-8, 7-9 and 4-6 since their 13-3 season in 2009 – they've shown a knack for the stupendously weird goof.

Then comes the death spiral.

Quicky now, we begin with the 2010 team that also had the AFC West's most talented roster.

What can be stupendously weirder than allowing consecutive blocked punts? Answer: allowing consecutive blocked punts from the same hole in the line.

The Raiders, nine-point underdogs then, turned those blocks into nine immediate points. The Chargers rallied but lost, and lost again, and again. The streak of missing the playoffs had begun despite the annual November Norv revival to come.

In 2011 the Chargers led the weak AFC West with a 4-1 record. Coming off a bye, they had the ball and an 11-point lead over the Jets midway through the third quarter.

The Jets beat them, but the surreal goof came the following game, on Halloween in Kansas City. Rivers muffed the snap, and the Chargers never got to kick that winning field goal.